The upright transport of containers in motor vehicles or the like is made difficult by the fact that these containers are subjected to the movements of the vehicles during travel. Consequently, for beverage containers in particular, efforts are made to produce a device for holding such containers, often even open containers, that is easy to operate and can hold different types of containers.
From DE 199 59 599 A1 is known a generic device for holding beverage containers in motor vehicles. This device has a pot-like receiving part with side walls and a bottom wall. Swivel-mounted on the receiving part are retaining arms that can pivot into pockets in the side wall. Beneath the bottom wall is an actuating drive, by which means the retaining arms can be pivoted synchronously in a power-driven manner. The actuating drive is controlled by an occupancy detector, which uses at least two sensors for detection.